This year, for my daughter’s birthday, we were able to host a small party. Like previous parties, pre-Covid, we serve cupcakes rather than cake so it’s easy to serve at the party and we don’t have to worry about germs from blowing out the birthday candle. This year, when I asked Zoey what she wanted, in addition to the orange-themed party she randomly came out with strawberry cupcakes with orange icing and rainbow sprinkles. At first I was stumped by this request but then I remembered the box mix and Jell-O cake I had sometimes as a kid and knew that was the way to make her request a reality!

The box mix and Jell-O cake recipe is simple and easy to remember… enough so that I always seem to second guess whether I’m missing a step or not so this time around I decided to look online to find a recipe and confirm that I wasn’t forgetting anything. I found a Box-Mix Jello Cake, from Rita1652, on Food.com that looked just like how I remembered the recipe going and was able to confirm everything I may need.

I still had orange cupcake liners leftover from Zoey’s orange and LEGO® themed party when we made colorful Angel food cupcakes so I was all set on paper liners. I only needed to go out and buy a box of white cake mix, a box of strawberry Jell-O, whipping cream, and colorful sprinkles. I already had the ingredients the cake mix needed along with icing sugar, vanilla, and food dye for the whip cream.

I started out by following the directions on the box of white cake mix to make the cake batter. I then placed the cupcake liners in my cupcake tins, filled them with the cake batter, and then baked them according to the box’s directions. I ended up with about twenty one cupcakes in all. Once the cupcakes had cooled I moved them into a large plastic container with a lid so I could pour the Jell-O, without making a mess, and store the cupcakes in the fridge for the party the next day. I had planned on maybe having some cupcakes in a small container but I was able to jam all the cupcakes into the one instead.

Once the cupcakes were contained I grabbed a fork and started poking them with it. Since the cupcakes were still warm and the fork was wide it caused bigger holes than I wanted so I switched to a metal chopstick instead. These holes help the Jell-O mix get into the cupcakes. I then mixed up the Jell-O by combining my box of Jell-O crystals with boiling water so the crystals could fully dissolve. The recipe has you use a 3 oz box of Jell-O mix with 1 and 3/4 cups of boiling water. Looking back I think I used a 3 oz box of Jell-O crystals but maybe not as my photo below shows the four cups of warm Jell-O liquid that I had just mixed up.

Anyway, afterwards I then poured the Jell-O liquid over all of the cupcakes. Looking back I should’ve only used half of the Jell-O mix but I kept pouring thinking I was almost done. As such I didn’t end up with the pink streaks shown in the cake screenshot above and instead had fully saturated pink cupcakes that still tasted amazing. Either way it tastes great and resulted in the pink strawberry cupcake that Zoey wanted.

Rather than icing Zoey and I had chosen to top the cupcakes with whip cream dyed orange with red and yellow water-based food dye. Rather than whipping it up during the party we use a whip cream dispenser so we can add in all the ingredients, attach a CO₂ cartridge to whip the cream, and then easily extrude the whip cream on demand. As such before the party I dropped the food dye in, passed it to Matt, and he added the whipping cream, icing sugar, and vanilla before using the CO₂ cartridge to turn it into whip cream. After a quick test we put it in the fridge for when the cupcake time came.

I absolutely adore using the whip cream dispenser at the girls’ birthday party as I can easily keep the cupcakes stored undecorated in a container in the fridge without worrying about icing being squished and can even stack them to store more. When it was time to sing happy birthday to Zoey I easily popped a cupcake out of the container, topped it with whip cream, used extra whip cream beside the cupcake to hold a candle in place, used a spoon to sprinkle the sprinkles overtop, lite the candles up, and carried it carefully over to her. Then after singing, one by one, I quickly dished, decorated, sprinkled, and served the remaining cupcakes to everyone else. Additionally, this way if anyone wants one without whip cream or sprinkles it’s simple to adjust.

This time around the first couple cupcakes were a bit hard to remove as they were a bit squished in and the Jell-O essentially glued the bottom of them down to the container but once the first couple were served it was much easier to remove them. I didn’t get any photos of the whip cream and sprinkle topped cupcakes but they were delicious and I have a couple ones of Zoey’s in the process of being eaten. She has a dollop of whip cream to the side so I could stick the large number 5(!) candle in it and lean it slightly against the cupcake. I had also added several smaller candles to the cupcake itself.

Whether you’re looking for cupcakes for a party, potluck, or something else I hope this helps you out. I had expected to see pink streaks in the final cupcakes but instead had oversaturated them with the Jell-O. Either way, apparently, it tastes great so whatever you choose will to turn out great!

Have you made a Jell-O infused cake or cupcake before? If so did you make it the same or different? I’d love future ideas so feel free to share any of yours in the comments below. I hope you’re having a fantastic week.

If you’re interested in getting any of my future blog updates I currently come out with a new one every Wednesday and share them to my Facebook page and Instagram account. You’re also more than welcome to join my email list located right under the search bar or underneath this post.